Katharina Thalmann was a research fellow at the American Studies Department. In December 2017 she completed her dissertation project "'‘A Plot to Make Us Look Foolish': The Marginalization of Conspiracy Theory" which traces the shift in the status of conspiracy theory from legitimate to illegitimate knowledge in the Cold War era. She is a member of the EU COST Action "Comparative Analysis of Conspiracy Theories (COMPACT)." Ms. Thalmann has previously worked as a research fellow at the collaborative research center "Heroes – Heroisations – Heroisms" at the University of Freiburg and has worked as an editor, translator, and ESL teacher in Germany and the U.S. She holds an M.A. in British and North American Cultural Studies (University of Freiburg) and a B.A. in Language, Culture, and Translation (University of Mainz). Her research interests include American literature and culture from the 18th century to the present, history of the South, U.S. presidents, popular culture and television, postmodernism, masculinity, and heroes/heroizations.